Lifeboat Foundation

Last December, scientists discovered an “active” asteroid within the asteroid belt, sandwiched between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The space rock, designated by astronomers as 6478 Gault, appeared to be leaving two trails of dust in its wake—active behavior that is associated with comets but rarely seen in asteroids.

While astronomers are still puzzling over the cause of Gault’s comet-like activity, an MIT-led team now reports that it has caught the asteroid in the act of changing color, in the near-infrared spectrum, from red to blue. It is the first time scientists have observed a color-shifting asteroid, in real-time.

“That was a very big surprise,” says Michael Marsset, a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). “We think we have witnessed the asteroid losing its reddish dust to space, and we are seeing the asteroid’s underlying, fresh blue layers.”

MIT researchers have found new ways to cure headaches in manufacturing carbon nanotube processors, which are faster and less power hungry than silicon chips.

Bone like foam created by researchers is showing Wolverine like healing properties.

For 6,000 years, humans have been making things from metal because it’s strong and tough; a lot of energy is required to damage it. The flip side of this property is that a lot of energy is required to repair that damage. Typically, the repair process involves melting the metal with welding torches that can reach 6,300 °F.

Now, for the first time, Penn Engineers have developed a way to repair metal at room temperature. They call their technique “healing” because of its similarity to the way bones heal, recruiting raw material and energy from an external source.

Continue reading “Engineers develop bone-like metal foam that can be ‘healed’ at room temperature” »

Light and sound waves are at the basis of energy and signal transport and fundamental to some of our most basic technologies—from cell phones to engines. Scientists, however, have yet to devise a method that allows them to store a wave intact for an indefinite period of time and then direct it toward a desired location on demand. Such a development would greatly facilitate the ability to manipulate waves for a variety of desired uses, including energy harvesting, quantum computing, structural-integrity monitoring, information storage, and more.

In a newly published paper in Science Advances, a group of researchers led by Andrea Alù, founding director of the Photonics Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) at The Graduate Center, CUNY, and by Massimo Ruzzene, professor of Aeronautics Engineering at Georgia Tech, have experimentally shown that it is possible to efficiently capture and store a wave intact then guide it towards a specific location.

“Our experiment proves that unconventional forms of excitation open new opportunities to gain control over wave propagation and scattering,” said Alù. “By carefully tailoring the time dependence of the excitation, it is possible to trick the wave to be efficiently stored in a cavity, and then release it on demand towards the desired direction.”

States of mind that the legal system cares about — memory, responsibility and mental maturity — have long been difficult to describe objectively, but neuroscientists are starting to detect patterns. Coming soon to a courtroom near you?

The end of fillings could be on the horizon after scientists found a way to successfully grow back tooth enamel. Although many laboratories have attempted to recreate the outer protective layer of teeth, the complex structure of overlapping microscopic rods has proved elusive.

Tooth enamel is the hardest tissue in the human body but it cannot repair itself when damaged, leaving people exposed to cavities and eventually needing fillings or a tooth extraction.

The famous Fibonacci sequence has captivated mathematicians, artists, designers, and scientists for centuries. Also known as the Golden Ratio, its ubiquity and astounding functionality in nature suggests its importance as a fundamental characteristic of the Universe. Science amazing science cool stuff science weird science cool nature science cool stuff.

We’ve talked about the Fibonacci series and the Golden ratio before, but it’s worth a quick review. The Fibonacci sequence starts like this: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55 and so on forever. Each number is the sum of the two numbers that precede it. It’s a simple pattern, but it appears to be a kind of built-in numbering system to the cosmos. Here are 15 astounding examples of phi in nature. Science amazing science cool stuff science weird science cool nature science cool stuff.

Anyone who has ever stood on the Prime Meridian line at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich in London holding a compass will know that True North and Magnetic North do not align.

Earth’s wandering magnetism means that the magnetic North Pole is constantly shifting, sending metal compass needles darting away from the geographical North Pole — a problem that requires hikers to make continual adjustments when navigating by map.

But next month, for the first time 360 years, True North and Magnetic North will line up.

Before him gods, And before them Gaia Created.

Before him gods.
And before them Gaia
Created

This Earth is a garden
Of life and dying
Of being and becoming
And ending

Continue reading “I’ve watched what God, and” »